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Sonoselective Transfection of Cerebral Vasculature without Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption - Bulk RNA seq

ABSTRACT: Treatment of many pathologies of the brain could be improved markedly by the development of non-invasive therapeutic approaches that elicit robust, endothelial cell-selective, gene expression in specific brain regions that are targeted under MR image-guidance. While focused ultrasound (FUS) in conjunction with gas-filled microbubbles (MBs) has emerged as a non-invasive modality for MR image-guided gene delivery to the brain, it has been used exclusively to transiently disrupt the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which may induce a sterile inflammation response. Here, we introduce a new MR image-guided FUS method that elicits endothelial-selective transfection of the cerebral vasculature (i.e. “sonoselective” transfection), without opening the BBB. We first determined that activating circulating, cationic plasmid-bearing, MBs with pulsed low-pressure (0.1 MPa) 1.1 MHz FUS facilitates sonoselective gene delivery to the endothelium without MRI-detectable disruption of the BBB. The degree of endothelial selectivity varied inversely with the FUS pressure, with higher pressures (i.e. 0.3 MPa and 0.4 MPa FUS) consistently inducing BBB opening and extravascular transfection. Bulk RNA sequencing analyses revealed that the sonoselective low pressure regimen does not upregulate inflammatory or immune responses. Single cell RNA sequencing indicated that the transcriptome of sonoselectively transfected brain endothelium was unaffected by the treatment. The approach developed here permits targeted gene delivery to blood vessels and could be used to promote angiogenesis, release endothelial cell-secreted factors to stimulate nerve regrowth, or recruit neural stem cells.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE141728 | GEO | 2019/12/11

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Genetic variation in the population has an influence on the manifestation of monogenic as well as multifactorial disorders, with the underlying genetic contribution dependent on several interacting variants. Common laboratory mouse strains used for modelling human disease lack the genetic variability of the human population. Therefore, outcomes of rodent studies show limited correlation with human disease. The functionality of brain vasculature is an important modifier of brain diseases. Importantly, the restrictive interface between blood and brain – the blood-brain barrier (BBB) serves as a major obstacle for CNS drug delivery. Using genetically diverse mouse strains, we aimed to investigate the phenotypic and transcriptomic variation of the intact BBB in different inbred mouse strains.We investigated the heterogeneity of brain vasculature in recently wild-derived mouse strains (CAST/EiJ, WSB/EiJ, PWK/PhJ) and long-inbred mouse strains (129S1/SvImJ, A/J, C57BL/6J, DBA/2J, NOD/ShiLtJ) using different phenotypic arms. We used immunohistochemistry and confocal laser microscopy followed by quantitative image analysis to determine vascular density and pericyte coverage in two brain regions – cortex and hippocampus. Using a low molecular weight fluorescence tracer, sodium fluorescein and spectrophotometry analysis, we assessed BBB permeability in young and aged mice of selected strains. For further phenotypic characterization of endothelial cells in inbred mouse strains, we performed bulk RNA sequencing of sorted endothelial cells isolated from cortex and hippocampus. We did not detect differences in cortical and hippocampal vessel density and pericyte coverage among all the investigated strains. The staining patterns of endothelial arteriovenous zonation markers were similar in different strains. BBB permeability to a small fluorescent tracer, sodium fluorescein, was also similar in different strains. Transcriptomic analysis of endothelial cells revealed that sex of the animal was a major determinant of gene expression differences. In addition, the expression level of several genes implicated in endothelial function and BBB biology differed between wild-derived and long-inbred mouse strains. Our analysis shows that although there were no major differences in parenchymal vascular morphology and BBB permeability between investigated mouse strains or sexes, transcriptomic differences of brain endothelial cells point to variation in gene expression of the intact BBB. These baseline variances might be confounding factors in pathological conditions that may lead to a differential functional outcome dependent on the sex or genetic polymorphism.

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Sonoselective Transfection of Cerebral Vasculature without Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption - Bulk RNA seq

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